Pro-Life Protester, Another Man Shot Dead in Michigan

September 11, 2009

In front of a high school in Owosso, Michigan, this morning, a longtime anti-abortion activist was gunned down. A car pulled up to where Jim Pouillon, 63, was (as was his custom) disseminating pro-life messages, and the driver pumped several shots into him. The suspect, now in custody but unidentified, is 33 years old and is thought to have also shot Mike Fuoss, 51, owner of Fuoss Gravel, earlier in the day, and to have planned another shooting before his apprehension. Police are getting warrants to search the suspect’s home. Though the motivation for the shootings remains unknown, longtime anti-abortion protester Randall Terry calls Pouillon “Pro-life’s First Martyr.” Another commenter suggests that Pouillon’s murder was “a crime of opportunity committed by someone strongly opposed to his views who was already on the hook for the earleir murder that morning”; another asks, “Was he shot ‘just in case’ because Homeland security said prolifers are domestic terrorist?”

Updated: Shooter’s name is Harlan James Drake. An investigation is ongoing.